Hear, Smith of the Heavens - Heyr, Himna Smiður

'Always we need you, truly every moment...'

Late at night, after their concert at BürgerBahnhof, Árstíðir gave a spontaneous performance in the train station in Wuppertal, Germany on September, 15th 2013.

Here is a video of Árstíðir singing this in Vilnius, in a quieter setting.



Icelandic Hymn
by Kolbeinn Tumason (1173–1208)

Hear, smith of the heavens,
what the poet asks.
May your mercy come softly unto me.
I call on you, for you have created me.
I am your servant, and you are my true Lord.

God, I call on you to heal me.
Remember me, prince of peace.
Always we need you.
Generous and great, drive out, O king of heavens,
every human sorrow from the dwelling of the heart.

Watch over me, gentle one,
Always we need you, truly every moment,
in this world of men.
Send us, son of the virgin, good causes.
All help comes from you, into my deepest heart.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - The Bucket Shop

"The terrible, cold, cruel part is Wall Street. Rivers of gold flow there from all over the earth, and death comes with it. There, as nowhere else, you feel a total absence of the spirit: herds of men who cannot count past three, herds more who cannot get past six, scorn for pure science and demoniacal respect for the present.

And the terrible thing is that the crowd that fills the Street believes that the world will always be the same, and that it is their duty to keep that huge machine running, day and night, forever."

Federico Garcia Lorca

Gold and silver were rallying slightly most of the day, while stocks were trending lower.

When the dovish Fed minutes came out stocks managed to rally and the precious metals reversed for losses.

The pricing of the metals at The Bucket Shop is strikingly diverged from the physical markets.

No where is this more apparent in the delivery reports, in which only copper seems to be getting some action, and little else.

The domestic warehouses continue to bleed out bullion.   In particular gold is held in size now only at the Scotia Mocatta and HSBC warehouses.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Loose As a Goose

Stocks were weak most of the day, until the Fed minutes from their last meeting came out in the afternoon.

The Fed's meeting conversations were dovish, and so on their release the minutes triggered a short covering rally in stocks.

Financial paper assets love that loose policy talk.

Have a pleasant evening.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - The Exceptional, Swirling the Drain

“The sense of responsibility in the financial community for the community as a whole is not small. It is nearly nil.”

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929

Gold was a bit weak today, while silver was holding on to the 16 handle extremely well.

There were no deliveries at The Bucket Shop yesterday except in copper.

The bullion warehouses continue their slow bleed of inventory.

After the bell Deutsche Bank reported that it would be taking a $7 billion loss on writedowns.

The commentary on US financial television would make Diogenes smash his lamp, and compel even the stoics to weep in despair.

And these are the courtiers to the exceptional.

Have a pleasant evening.

h/t David Stockman

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Waiting For Godot, or Deutsche Bank, or Something Like That

“If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.”

John Kenneth Galbraith

By this measure, the Federal Reserve is already amongst the immortals.

Oh, well done.

The economic news came in weakly this morning.

The 'tax reform' discussion on CNBC this afternoon was almost surreal in its detachment from economic reality.

After the bell Deutsche Bank reported that it would be taking a $7 billion loss on writedowns.

Earnings will start coming in after the bell on Thursday.

Have a pleasant evening.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Slow Bleed in Quiet Times - Treasury Antics

Gold and silver had some nice follow through today, while the dollar showed weakness within a recent trading range.

We have some potential formations on the charts, but so far nothing seems to complete its development and 'work' as we might normally expect.

Let's see if the metals can keep their price rally going.

The Bucket Shop was quiet, and the warehouses continue their slow loss of bullion.

Here is some knowledge from Lee Adler about the short term 'buying panic' in Treasuries that took the yield on the 3 month down to zero.  He suggests it was a case of Primary Dealers with too much cash and too little supply, and I think it has merit.

Basically with the Fed having QE'd the Treasury debt market, and with the Treasury paying down maturities as they play with the debt ceiling, banks had ended up with too much cash and not enough Treasuries on their books.   This may not be a problem for some banks, but for the Banks who are also Primary Dealers that is a slightly different problem.

This can create some distortions in the bills and notes.  It was also exacerbated by the financial sector's end of quarter balance sheet window dressing antics.

I suspect some of the Fed's recent reverse repo activity, in which they loan Treasuries from their inventory to the Primary Dealer Banks in return for a loan of cash with interest (paid to the Banks) might have been related to this.

Certainly there are stresses in the financial sector, and the Fed's lack of conviction in its policy on stimulus versus raising rates doesn't help.  Bubbles are fun when they are on the rise, but having passed their zenith, they can quickly become a source of concern and instability.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Earnings Kickoff On Thursday

The economic news continues to come in weakly.

Alcoa will kick off the 3Q earnings reports on Thursday, October 8 after the bell.

We have been getting some advance notice of changes in earnings forecasts.  The overall picture of the economy is not particularly good.

So far we have seen a noticeable divergence between corporate results and the incomes of the median American citizen.

Let's see how things progress.

Have a pleasant evening.